Fears that Teesside ghost ship dismantler Able UK will scrap retired British nuclear submarines have been aired by green protesters.

Neil Marley of the Hartlepool branch of Friends of the Earth told a meeting of anti-ghost ship protesters last night that by 2040 dozens of British nuclear subs would need scrapping.

He said he had found a mention of submarines in paperwork submitted by Able UK and believes Graythorp may be being lined up for the work.

"The Government is desperate to find somewhere to deal with these submarines," he said.

"With the nuclear power station so close to Able and rail links to Sellafield where some material would have to go we are ideally positioned to get them.

"As I understand it there was one bid in for the contract to deal with the submarines and the description of the company that has that bid in sounds like an estate agent's brief for Graythorp."

The suggestion sparked outrage among the 50 people who attended last night's meeting.

The meeting was called to debate progress on the ghost ships and so FoE experts could explain how protesters could fight Able's plan to dismantle 13 retired US naval vessels.

On hearing the nuclear suggestion one protester shouted: "The ghost ships would be the thin end of the wedge if this is what we're being lined-up for, we must fight this."

Today the Gazette has learned that the Ministry of Defence has no plans to use Able's Graythorp yard.

Instead it is storing decommissioned subs in Scotland and Plymouth and wants to use another Scottish yard to deal with the nuclear reactors and leftover fuel. After that the structure, which would have only background radiation, would be cut up at privately run dockyards, within existing Royal Navy sites.

"The future vessels would be dismantled at a private facility at Devonport as they come offline," said an MoD spokesman.

"If Devonport decided to sub-contract to the Graythorp yard or anywhere else they would need Government permission. But as things stands the port at Graythorp isn't in consideration for any part of the submarine decommissioning."

A spokesman for Able UK said that after a court judgment last year ruled the company could not dismantle the ships because they were not 'marine structures' all kinds of vessels which could be worked on were being defined in the new application.